The present invention relates to devices used to practice batting a baseball or softball.
Because it is often inconvenient or inefficient to use live or machine pitching for baseball batting practice, a number of prior art devices have been developed to allow a young baseball player to hit a baseball without the need for other players to pitch or retrieve the ball. Typical prior art structures are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,322,075; 4,415,155; 3,830,494; 4,010,950; 4,050,694; 3,006,647; 3,366,383; 3,454,275; 2,976,040; 2,058,277; 4,508,340; 3,994,494; and 4,502,684.
The prior art devices, however, have been deficient in one or more significant areas. Some are too complex and expensive for purchase and use by young ball players. Or, they lack features to prevent dangerous return movement of the ball after it is hit or to return the ball to a hitting position with a simulated pitching motion. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,075 is, in many respects, quite similar to the present invention, in that it has a first and second tether. Yet, it has some of the drawbacks just referred to. Although the second tether of the '075 device restricts dangerous return ball action, it also requires the batter to continue to hit a relatively stationary ball, as if on a batting tee. Also, the height of the second tether on the pole must be adjusted for batters of varying size. In addition, because the second tether is fixed at its ball-end, a mis-hit above the ball could cause injury to the batter when the bat motion is stopped abruptly by the restraining first and second tethers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,385, issued to Applicant on Feb. 6, 1990, overcame some of the limitations of the prior art devices. U.S Pat. No. 4,898,385 did provide a batting practice device which is tethered to maximize safety, which automatically self-adjusts to the strength and size of the batter, and which simulates a pitched ball motion. However, U.S. Pat. No, 4,898,385, as well as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,322,075 and 3,994,494, all require a horizontal arm extending from the pole that supports the batting practice device. This horizontal arm required in the prior art makes the prior art more expensive.
What is needed, then is a batting practice device which is tethered to maximize safety, which automatically self-adjusts to the strength and size of the batter, which simulates a pitched ball motion, and which does not require the expense and construction of a horizontal arm.